Czech Republic vs. Sweden WJC Semifinal Game Recap

By Robert Neuhauser

January 6th, 2001

Every semifinal game is a battle. Now it time for all teams to be serious. It’s time to playfor the medals. This game will decide who will play for gold and who can eventually finishwithout a medal. The Czech team realized that. They’ve had only about 20 hours after thequarterfinal game to prepare for the semifinal game against Swedes, who sent the host Russiansto play for the fifth place best when they defeated them 3:2 in their quarterfinal game. Bothteams met in the first game of the tournament and the Czechs have won that tight defensive game2:1 when Martin Erat scored the game winner with just three minutes left in the game. It wasobvious that this game won’t be different, it’ll be a serious playoff game with defense first.The Czechs have great defensive corps and so do the Swedes. They’re led by Detroit Red Wingsdraftee Nicklas Kronwall, who already played for the senior national team at the Pragobanka Cup.Fowards are very good on the Swedish team, too, and the eyes of the NHL scouts would probablyfocus on Fredrik Sjostrom, a highly touted 2001 prospect, who already scored twice during thetournament. Both teams are equally good, have excellent goaltending provided by Tomas Dubaand Henrik Lundqvist, mobile defensemen and scoring forwards. In a game like that can everydetail decide. A very bad thing for the Czech team happened the night before this match whenthree forwards, Ivan Rachunek, Marek Tomica and Ladislav Vlcek felt sick and the doctor sentthem back to bed because of a flu. But the Czechs are used to play on three lines so therewas not such a big problem. Tomas Plekanec played center of the third line with wingersPatrik Moskal and Lukas Havel instead of Tomica and Vlcek.

The game began and the Swedes made their presence felt with hard, fast and aggresive hockey.That was not a round robin game, the pace of this game was higher. But the fortune was onceagain on the Czech side and sent a Swedish player to the penalty box in the 8th minute. Thesecond line of Vrbata – Sivek – Erat tried their luck but Henrik Lundqvist was still holding theshutout. So the first line went onto the ice. And there was Rostislav Klesla passing to LiborUstrnul, who passed the puck to Zdenek Blatny at the top of the right faceoff circle, Blatnyreceived the pass and fired a wrist shot which went just over Henrik Lundqvist’s shoulderinto the net – 1:0, powerplay goal! After the game Blatny stated that he sometimes scoreslike this when playing for the Kootenay Ice, he said that he looks where is the goalie, closeshis eyes and shoots to the upper corner of the net. Very useful this time!

But the Swedes didn’t want to give up so easily and they fought as hard as they could. The Czechsquad made their situation a bit easier with lots of fouls and Martin Erat receiving a 10-minutepenalty. In the second period the Swedes played almost seven minutes with an extra man, but itwas Tomas Duba who was the biggest star on the ice. He held the hopes of the Czech team inthe second period when he stopped Los Angeles Kings’ prospect Tim Eriksson on a breakaway androbbed Chicago Blackhawks’ talent Jonas Nordqvist on another break situation.

Michal Sivek could increase the lead of the Czech team, but failed to score while standingin front of Lundqvist. And the Swedes increased the tempo of their attacks even more – butDuba was like Dominik Hasek in Nagano – a wall. He said to the defensemen to bring the puckout of the Czech zone whenever they could, even if it hurts the forwards who can’t receiveaccurate passes. Such a game can be decided by a single mistake. And fortune – and Tomas Duba –wanted it to be the Swedish in the 10th minute. After 60 minutes there was still 1:0 for theCzechs on the scoreboard. The czechs won! Tomas Duba turned aside 29 shots, Henrik Lundqvistjust 15. That was a victory of the tactics and Tomas Duba.